Since 1983, April has been recognized in the United States as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, an observance dedicated to raising awareness of and preventing child abuse.
In anticipation of this year’s observance, Kids Hub Child Advocacy Center – a Hattiesburg non-profit organization devoted to providing forensic interview services and advocacy to victims of child abuse – is holding its inaugural Pinwheel Palooza 5K Run on March 30.
“I think one of the glaring comments that we hear back from people when we speak about the work that we do, is just shock that this happens in our own community,” said DiDi Ellis, executive director at Kids Hub. “So we really want people to understand that this isn’t something you just see on the news that happens in another state or in another community – it happens right here locally in the Pine Belt, and tons of kids are affected by it.”
Race-day registration will be held from 8:30-9 a.m. at Kamper Park in Hattiesburg, followed by the 5K run from 9-10 a.m. The run will begin at the park and veer through the Avenues before finishing back at the park, at which point race awards will be given out.
Volunteers will then plant pinwheel gardens in Hattiesburg, Petal and Columbia to honor the more than 480 children that were served by Kids Hub in 2018. So far, Ellis has enlisted volunteers from local churches, along with students from the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey University, to help plant approximately 20 gardens throughout the area.
“We’ve always planted pinwheel gardens, but we’ve never done a single event where we plant them all – we’ve just planted them sporadically throughout the month,” Ellis said. “So this time we’re trying to get all the pinwheel gardens up on the same day, so we can really maximize the reach for people to understand what these gardens represent.
“We don’t want people to look at these pinwheel gardens and say, ‘Oh, poor kids,’ and just feel pity. We want them to instead ask the question that if this many kids are affected by abuse, then what is my role in that? As a member of this community, how do I help end child abuse in my community, and how do I help protect the children that I come in contact with?”
Pre-registration for the Pinwheel Palooza 5K is available online at https://bit.ly/2TK70So, and volunteer registration can be found at https://bit.ly/2IaITL8.
In addition to the pinwheel gardens planted during the Pinwheel Palooza, Kids Hub representatives also will plant gardens at local county courthouses on March 22. Those gardens will specifically represent the children from each particular county.
